TX Multi Mama's

New TV show premiering tomorrow on the WE channel about moms of multiples featuring moms from the multiples group I belonged to in Dallas. So very excited to see the show I'm even having a viewing party for it! Awesome previews and clips about each mom if you go to the link.


Must see for anyone who likes reality TV or wants to see what it is like to have twins, triplets or quads!
Tuesday, December 27th at 7 pm Central, WE TV

Merry Christmas 2011

What Fun Christmas Card

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How to decorate a tree- 2 year old style

We bought our tree Thanksgiving weekend. I'm all about the real live tree. That's what we always had growing up and that's what I want every year. Last year if you recall we had a miniature fake tree because we didn't have any room in our townhouse. Also, the kids were still pretty destructive (like they aren't now, HA!) so I made all of the ornaments out of paper thinking they would last one year and then this year we would be back to the real thing. Funny thing is that I really liked our tree last year with all paper ornaments so I decided to use the paper ornaments again mixed with our other breakable items.
When we went to buy the tree the kids were crabby and all out of sorts plus it was cold and rainy with no snow so it certainly was not the tree picking parting I had envisioned. We were walking around in the lot and all the kids did was huddle together and oogle the snack Addy had smuggled out of the van. They had no interest in wandering around a tree lot and I kind of forgot to talk up the Christmas thing so they had no idea what we were even doing.


They did like the free blue pine cones that came with a tree purchase. Here's a triplet perk- most customers get one per tree. We got 3.

Someone (Eloise) was not happy about the glitter on her hand.

Inspecting our selection

Eloise doing the freshness test- breaking branches to release the incredible pine aroma.

But you can't decorate the Christmas tree unless you are properly attired. right?

I pulled out all the unbreakable decorations and just let them have at it. They really were not able to hook the ornaments on the tree but they came up with their own creative team effort.


Addy was the organizer pulling out ornaments and beads out of boxes and bags as fast as she could.

Handing off to the other two for their artful placement.


I had to intervene once they found the pine cones and just started to throw them at the tree and retrieve whatever didn't stick and start over. That was fine until Addy found the glass balls...

We lost a couple ornaments in that battle but what is a good tree decorating party without a few accidents and emergency sweeping?

Eloise has such a good eye. She could see a few bare spots and added a few finishing touches.
\
And one more thing, right there...

Finished product- notice the stockings stuffed in the branches?

I added 40 feet of home made hand colored garland and we are good to go. My favorite tree ever.

2.5

Two and 1/2 years old? Where has the time gone? Oh right, most of it has been spent doing laundry. Just kidding but that is the way it seems lately. I swear I spend at least and hour a day folding laundry. Now that the weather is colder and they wear more layers and have become much more finicky about their attire it is like my daily laundry has doubled. Not like 2 years ago when I could do 2 days worth in 1 load because their clothes was so little. But then I was also making 24 bottles at a time. I think I'll take the laundry over the bottles.
The big news is that Beckett said a 4 word sentence. I just got off the phone with his speech therapist and they think he has made enormous progress and think he will be all caught up by the time he turns 3.
Just for the record, it is a very difficult sequence for kids to use any vowel other than the letter U after the consonant F. So for example the words FIX, FOX, and FROG all sound like another word that I'm sure he doesn't know that starts with FU..... Pretty funny- for now.
This is what he said- "My birthday coming soon." Then Addy said, "Mees too!" and Eloise said, "Mees too!" Mees is the word they use for mine. I don't think they understand they share a birthday; they just want ANYTHING anyone else has.

As you may have noticed, we have a pretty spectacular wallpaper scene of the Left Bank in Paris on the wall of our breakfast nook which leads to lots of conversations about traveling and going to various places. They think hotels are just the best thing ever and just love the idea of going to various places and talking about what we would see there. One day Addy was upset about something and on the verge of losing it and she looked up at the scene on the wall and said, "GO THERE!! GO THERE, NOW!" and burst out crying. It was like going Paris was the only thing that would make her feel better. Sometime I feel that way too sweetheart.
So we did. We went just like that (thanks to the hand of their father in the spirit of the best left bank artist.)
They loved it. That's the beauty of 2.5 year olds.

Santa is a no go

Guess we should have mentioned the whole Santa Claus thing prior to the drive to see him. First I spring on them the whole "you can walk up to people's houses and yell Trick or Treat and they give you candy thing" and then I say they can't do that anymore and then I make a big deal out of turkey and they eat it and throw up multiple times and now I start telling them about this guy that brings toys down the chimney to "good" boys and girls and he drives a sleigh with flying reindeer and there are elves and whatnot. They may have lost faith in my stories because they are just not buying it.

But, they still believe that giant beetles, woolly mammoths and dinosaurs exist. I haven't told them my whole "extinction" story yet.


Beckett is just going to be furious when he hears this one. Currently his favorite exhibit at the zoo is the shrub in trimmed into the shape of a brontosaurus.

Thanksgiving 2011

I love Thanksgiving. I love the food, the football, the family, the leftovers. I love that everyone in our family, extended and otherwise, has their own thoughts on what the Thanksgiving tradition should be. Some like ham AND turkey, marshmallows OR pineapple on the sweet potatoes, stuffing OR dressing (I don't know the difference), Packers OR Lions? Really that last question was just to see if you were paying attention because this is really a no brainer. How about that schoolyard smack down?
I was referring to the Packer game but here is Isaac giving Oliver the old 1-2 count. Really? Pick on someone your own size.

This year we took the kids on Wednesday night to my mom's house and had Thanksgiving in Green Bay. The kids love to talk about Mimi's house and they love going there. When we ask them what they want to do in the morning, more often than not one of the kids will say they want to go to Mimi's house. They love to look at pictures of themselves at Mimi's house. When we can't see the moon at night they think that it is at Mimi's house. So we thought this would be a pretty big hit, which it was, but I always forget how hard it is on all of us to be out of our normal routine. They went to bed late on Wednesday and Rich had to sleep on the floor in their room because they were super freaked out about being in their pack n' plays. Especially Eloise.
Mmmmm, I love the flavors of Thanksgiving if I haven't mentioned it before. I woke up to kids running around screaming downstairs and the smell of sage stuffing. Traditionally we eat later in the day but for some reason it was really important to be eating the meal WHILE the Packers played so we ate much earlier- this is Green Bay after all. Here are the guys helping out in the kitchen. (Isaac, Oliver, Steve, Rich, Eloise and Jim)

Eloise is more of a daddy's girl every day.

This seems totally absurd but when we started to put the food out all of the kids (6 kids 5 and under) ran to the table and were begging to eat so rather than the adults at the big table all of the kids sat at the big table with the food while we just kind of stood around and watched and took pictures.


It really worked out great because the kids only lasted a few minutes then they took off to play and then we could enjoy our meal.

All of that food and all that Beckett wants is two pickles and a half of a roll. This kid just breaks my heart. Eat boy!
On that note, we had a bunch of blood tests done on Beckett to see if he had some food allergies or Celiac or liver problems or anything that could pinpoint why he not gaining weight at a higher rate. All of his labs came back normal which is great but now we have to just keep offering food and try to not make meal time a struggle.
Phew, that is better. Beckett is obsessed with dinosaurs (see the shirt?) and pretty much the only way to get him to eat is to pretend to be a dinosaur. Even on Thanksgiving.


The girls could not keep their hands off of the relish plate. I think Eloise had like 20 olives on her plate at one point so we had to remove it from the table. Then they proceeded to fish off of their neighbors plate.

I think in every picture I have Eloise is stealing from Addy's plate.

Oh no, tryptophan coma!!!!

Just kidding, it is part of the new 'touchdown' dance.

It's all fun and games until someone pukes. And that is exactly what happened about 8 times starting at about 6 pm. Poor little Ms. Addycakes was so miserable. I had to change my clothes twice, hers about 4 times and the tablecloth once. At one point she ran over to the toilet, lifted up the lid and toilet seat and wrapped her arms around the toilet and made retching noises that were clearly fake. Then said, "Can't puke Mama, can't puke." She was probably nauseous and didn't know what to do. All I know is that girl ate a whole boatload of pickles for Thanksgiving. It was a pretty miserable night for everyone not to mention that Eloise was so freaked out she refused to sleep in her pack n'play and would wake up and scream every time we tried to put her in. At one point in the middle of the night all three kids were up crying which hasn't happened in forever. Why is it when kids are sick all they want to do is drink milk. Addy was begging for milk all night and that was the last thing I was about to give her. I've learned my lesson with milk and pukey kids.
Anyway, it seems that we are all finally back to normal after both Rich and I had something during this week as well. Ugg. We had a really good two year run of essentially no sickness and it seems that we are just getting hit hard this year. Probably because now our kids are around a ton of other kids at the JCC or Eloise at school so I guess we are now in the circle of germs. Better now than when they were little.
Up next- what do you get when you let 3 two year olds decorate the Christmas tree?